4
11th Southern African Online Information Meeting (SAOIM), 5-8 June 2012 Capacity Building: Shared vision Need for increased production, access and use of research output in Africa ICTs, in particular, E-resources play an important role in research and academic disciplines Increased costs of staff development /training Cascading model (ToT approach) F2F effective but expensive Online training tools/approaches working but of limited use Benefits of partnerships across the continent Local/regional/international Maximise ROI and reduce duplication

5
11th Southern African Online Information Meeting (SAOIM), 5-8 June 2012 Case for Advocacy: Role of libraries and e-resources Library services play an important role at research and academic institutions. Building information skills at these institutions is critical if research is to improve. Libraries need ICT infrastructure and relevant staff skills if this is going to be a reality in the SSA region. E-resources: “Build and they will come approach” not bringing required results User skills have a major bearing on access and use; local research output and publishing

7
11th Southern African Online Information Meeting (SAOIM), 5-8 June 2012 E-resources access and use challenges Low awareness about e-resources’ and their relevance Need for justification in investment at institutions inline with mandate and bottom-line goals of the institution Low usage of library e-resources among users Low user skills remain an important barrier to the uptake of e-resources Lack of adequate IT & Internet infrastructure at institutions Relevant supporting policies required to promote ICT/e- resources investment and use

12
11th Southern African Online Information Meeting (SAOIM), 5-8 June 2012 Lessons learnt: Management support critical Institutionalisation strategies: e-resources play an important role in research and increased skills for information enablers, researchers, faculty and students needs to be prioritised and institutionalised if the strategy is to be sustained Management buy-in critical in order to increase investment in libraries, e-resources and the building of relevant skills Faculty and researchers must take the lead in supporting libraries in addressing the issue of low awareness and user skills at the institutions

13
11th Southern African Online Information Meeting (SAOIM), 5-8 June 2012 Lessons Learnt: Advocacy at institutions for increased investment Library services contribution to bottom-line: Libraries have a direct impact on the quality of local research and local publishing work the researchers, faculty and students can undertake and produce given the limited resources at their disposal. Improved quality of research: The ability to write research manuscripts for publishing, competitive grant proposals, etc Directors of Libraries need to increase their voice and justification for the increased investment in e- resources and IL training at the institutions